DEDICATED TO ELLIE :D

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or the musical or the setting. The characters and setting belong to CP Coulter, the musical belongs to Jon Hartmere, Jr. and Damon Intrabartolo. (According to wikipedia?)

Video Reed watches: watch?v=QaJTt5weMwE

"Shit."

"What?" Logan asked, sounding completely disinterested.

"I got the lead." Julian turned to him, looking slightly shocked.

"Why are you so surprised? You're a famous actor, obviously they'd cast you in the lead. Why did you audition anyway? You're in Something Damaged, it's not like you need it."

Julian sighed. "Carmen thought it'd be good for my image. I don't know. But we thought I'd get Zack or something, since I clearly don't need the big roles. Also, this means making out with Van Kamp and Hughes. Reed's cute, but I don't know if I can deal with Wes."

"Cute?" Logan raised his eyebrows.

"Well, cuter than Wes. He's tiny and his hair is fluffy."

"I bet he'll make a very pretty girl." Derek smirked.

Julian smiled, "No, Reed's Peter. Wes is playing Ivy!" He looked to Derek, clearly trying to contain himself, but bursting out laughing.

Logan and Derek couldn't help but join him. Wes Hughes was definitely going to look pretty in a Catholic school girl outfit.

"Oh my god, Reed!" Kurt exclaimed, grinning at his friend who stared back in blank shock. "You got Peter!"

"Yeah." Reed muttered, blinking.

"…Is there something wrong with that?"

"I've never played lead before," Reed explained, chewing a fingernail. "I don't know if I can deal with everyone staring at me – and I'm acting opposite Julian Larson! He'll be all perfect and I'll probably fall over and forget my lines in the opening number and it'll take me weeks to get off the script in rehearsals and he'll get so irritated-"

"Reed, calm down! Peter only has one solo, and Julian likes you. Well, he's nice to you at least. So he'll probably help you if need it. But you go to Ms Medel and back out if you want."

"Do you think I should?" Reed asked, as Kurt pulled his hand away from his mouth.

"No way! I think this'll be great!"

"...Okay." Reed frowned, biting onto his lip instead.

Reed tapped his fingers over the keys, staring blankly at his screen. Who thought essays were a good idea?

He loaded Facebook. Just checking. Maybe for three hours, maybe not. He scrolled listlessly, cursing internally at everyone's complete lack of activity. Now he couldn't justify his procrastination.

He minimised the window, attempting once again to concentrate on his essay.

A couple of minutes later, a Facebook notification booped.

Reed opened the window again, a box flashing in the corner.

Julian Larson
Hey

Reed Van Kamp
Hi

Reed chewed on his lip as Julian typed again. They hadn't even started rehearsals. Maybe he was really horrified at the thought of playing Reed's love interest and wanted him to back down. Maybe he found the idea of kissing him repulsive – oh god, was he going to have to kiss him? That could be okay, he could do that. Could he? Maybe-

Julian Larson
I know we haven't even started rehearsals yet, but I was wondering if you were free tomorrow so we could read lines together?

Reed sighed in relief, rushing to reply.

Reed Van Kamp
Sure, what time? I'm free all day.

Julian Larson
Is 10 too early?

Reed Van Kamp
No, that's perfect :)

Reed cringed as soon as he sent it. Why was he such a dork?!

Julian Larson
Okay, see you then.

Ugh. The English essay could wait, he had to whole weekend for it. Right now, Reed had flailing to do.

(a couple of weeks later)

The 10am Saturday meetups were becoming a regular thing, often lasting well into the afternoon. They were both beginning to be able to do their scenes with only a couple of script checks, much to the delight of Ms Medel in their official rehearsal time. Reed struggled to remember his lines more than Julian did, but since he already knew the songs a lot better than Julian he felt almost like they balanced out. He was finding Julian a lot more patient with him than he'd expected though, and his presence a lot more enjoyable. He'd even bought chocolate milk to last week's meeting, leading to a discussion of whether putting caramel in it was acceptable. (Reed: NEVER. Julian: ALWAYS.)

"I feel like I shouldn't be singing this to you," Julian laughed, "It makes me feel like such a creep!"

"He's joking around with his boyfriend! It's not like he's singing it to some random kid on the street."

"You drink chocolate milk. This is not age appropriate." Julian raised an eyebrow.

"It's a perfectly reasonable choice of beverage!"

"We should get more of it." Julian nodded in agreement.

"Sing the song!" Reed commanded, trying to get them back on subject.

"Hey little boy, would you like a ride, a lollipop, a puppy?
How about a baseball bat? – there's one in my pants!"

Julian smirked, flicking his eyebrows up.

"No thank you. My mom, she said to never talk to strangers."

Reed put on an overly innocent face, trying not to laugh.

"So a kiss is out of the question then?"

Reed blushed, looking at Julian coyly from under his lashes "I'll take a chance."

"Reed."

"Yeah?"

"I'm hungry. Can we get lunch?"

"Stop putting off the song!" Reed flailed. "We have to practice!"

"But I'm hungry. And there are Windsors eyeing me like we'll need to cast a new Jason if I keep on singing with you about boners."

"Fine, we'll stop for lunch. And then create some kind of big havoc in Windsor so they leave us alone."

Reed closed his eyes, ignoring the figures on the screen, having paused so he could flail out of embarrassment as they reached the fourth line of the song. Julian had been acting. Not actually flirting and Reed had still wanted to kiss him. He couldn't act opposite Julian, not when he kept thinking about kissing him. It was creepy and weird. Is it too late to back out?

It doesn't matter, it's just a stupid crush. It'll go away.

He unpaused the video, watching the actors move around the stage, and their facial expressions, focusing particularly on Peter. Could he really get that close to Julian without it being awkward? And the kissing. He was going to have to kiss Julian Larson. Julian Larson who'd probably kissed a lot more people than he had. In fact, there were probably videos of him making out with people on Youtube. And they would have to do it infront of people!

Julian closed his eyes, laying back on his bed as the music flowed through his headphones. He smirked as he remembered Reed blushing during their rehearsal earlier. They'd have to start figuring out staging soon, and that included kissing. Honestly, Julian was kind of looking forward to it. Not in a creepy way. Reed was cute, and Julian just liked kissing pretty people.

It would definitely be awkward at first though.

Reed just looked so tiny and innocent, it made Julian feel like a creep.

He'd have to come up with some kind of bonding activity to get closer to Reed, hopefully get him comfortable enough to manage such close proximity. Haven would be playing in town next week. Maybe he could text Clark and get tickets for both of them.

AN: I don't write a lot, so sorry for them being OOC. I'm trying! I have plans for the rest of the fic, it should hopefully be about 3 chapters :3

Also I have never done a school production, so sorry that it's all really vague because of me not knowing how it works!